Posted on 07/14/2024 6:26:30 AM PDT by DoodleBob
How does a gunman, in plain view of some spectators, manage to open fire on a former president at a campaign rally protected by federal and local law enforcement?
That is the frightening and unanswered question facing the country — and security officials — after Donald Trump said he suffered a graze wound on his right ear while he was speaking in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania, and left the stage with a bloodied head.
Secret Service personnel shot and killed the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, immediately after he opened fire, the FBI said. A spectator was killed and two additional spectators were injured, but it was not immediately clear who shot them.
The assassination attempt, in which Crooks fired multiple shots at the stage from a roof outside the venue’s security perimeter, appeared to be the result of a grave lapse, perhaps the biggest since President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded outside a Washington hotel in 1981.
Security experts said it was difficult, and perhaps impossible, to eliminate every threat, particularly with long-range weapons and outdoor events.
But some said routine precautions should have prevented the shooter from getting onto the nearby roof.
>Steve Nottingham, a former SWAT commander in Long Beach, California, called Saturday’s shooting “a fundamental security failure.”
He has worked security details for visiting world leaders, including presidents, and now trains officers on how to respond to critical incidents. He pointed at likely breakdowns in the pre-event scouting and real-time monitoring of places a gunman could shoot from.
“They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time,” Nottingham said.
Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has been on Secret Service details, said he was surprised that the shooter was able to occupy an elevated position within rifle range of the rally site.
“Whenever I’ve been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police,” Cavanaugh said. “There’s nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground.”
He said a high-powered rifle like an AR-15 can hit targets 200 yards away. Trump was about 148 yards from the rooftop where the shooter was found dead, NBC News found, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.
Cavanaugh added: “Having been on Secret Service details, it’s amazing to me that somebody was on an elevated position that they didn’t know about.”
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens defended the Secret Service at a news conference after the shooting.
“It is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat against a very determined attacker,” Bivens said. “That’s a huge lift.”
“The investigation will really give us an opportunity to take a look at where any failures occurred and what can be done better in the future,” he added.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FBI is leading the investigation, including its crisis response team members and evidence response technicians, it said in a statement Saturday evening.
Last month, as the presidential campaign heated up, the Secret Service said it was increasing the size of the detail assigned to Trump. The protection was bulked up “to ensure the highest level of security for not only the event sites but the travel in between events,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at the time.
Perhaps the first sign that something was going wrong as Trump spoke Saturday came when spectators said they noticed a man with rifle bear-crawling on a nearby roof. One recalled trying to get the attention of law enforcement.
“The police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,’” the witness told BBC News. “And the police were like, ‘Huh, what?’ Like they didn’t know what was going on. We’re like, ‘Right here on the roof. We can see him from right here. We see him. He’s crawling.’”
A couple of minutes later, the man opened fire, the witness said.
Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, said at a news conference that law enforcement was not aware of the man’s presence on the rooftop until he started firing.
“It is surprising,” Rojek conceded when pressed by a reporter on the number of shots the gunman managed to fire.
He referred questions about advance security precautions to the Secret Service.
In the front row of the rally, attendees heard a series of pops and saw Secret Service agents jump on the stage. One, who identified herself as Erin, told NBC News that she saw blood on Trump’s ear. She did not fear for her own safety, she said. “We were only concerned about him,” she said, referring to Trump.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social a couple of hours later that a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” Trump wrote. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras said it is impossible to eliminate every potential threat in a situation like Saturday’s.
Outdoor rallies pose enormous security challenges given the availability of high-powered weapons, Poumpouras said.
“Somebody can be out in the distance and really engage your target from a long range, and there are weapons out there that allow you to do this,” said Poumpouras, who protected multiple presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, during her 12 years with the Secret Service.
“Let’s say you hunkered this whole area down. You’ve got the magnetometers; you’ve got the tactical element. Everything is locked and tight. How do you secure that outer perimeter? How far do you go? And can you cover everything? That’s a problem.”
She added: “Even if somebody is in an elevated position or not, how do you secure all of those elevated positions when you have weapons with the capabilities that are able to shoot long distances? This is what you are up against.”
Jillian Snider, a retired New York City police officer who was often detailed to political events, said it is routine for law enforcement to do a perimeter check extending a few hundred yards ahead of such an event.
“That doesn’t mean that someone can’t sneakily make their way to one of those positions afterward, especially if it was someone who had done some preplanning,” said Snider, an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “There are a lot of places in that area to hide, and you can’t monitor every possible position.”
“Someone who is that driven to do something like this will find a way to try and get the job done,” she added.
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
Now consider that the "experienced" careerists in the USSS, PA state police and local law enforcement clearly not only did not have the rooftop secured, but obviously did not have the access points to the rooftop secured, something smells worse than Biden's diaper after a bowl of sauerkraut and applesauce.
One of the inherent missions of a countersniper on a security detail is to apply their skills and training in identifying key positions that could be used by a potential assassin so access to those positions can be actively denied. I would be curious if they SS snipers and advance team has pointed out the obvious and were overridden, or if they merely failed to identify the obvious.
DEI hires at the Secret Service, coupled with an entire political party that knows that it cannot defeat this man, and will do anything to stop him and thereby maintain and increase its power. ANYTHING! That’s how.
It is absolutely inconceivable to me that an open roof was allowed to exist only 125 yards from the speaker’s podium. That’s not an accident, in my opinion. Nor is it an accident that three of the Secret Service agents posted to Trump’s personal security are women who are a head shorter than he is. When you couple his head being open for a shot with the availability of such a short shot, that is not an accident. Thank God that Trump turned his head at just the right moment, otherwise he would be dead, and this country would be in complete turmoil. Also, thank God that there was not a second gunman, because if there had been, I think it likely that there would have been a successful assassination, given the incredibly slow and ineffective protection around Trump.
Since I was a little kid in the late 1960s, I have always noticed that the Secret Service agents around a president are generally at least as tall as he is, if not significantly Taller, simply to not just conceal the exact place where the protect is located, but also to be able to provide physical cover in case another shot comes in his direction. That was completely lacking here, and there is no excuse possible, not given the normal practices of the Secret Service for many decades.
mark
What made his handler think he could send his zombie off in the way and manner in which he was sent without thinking it was a fool’s errand to do so?
Again, who in their right mind would think that this was a plan that had any chance of succeeding?
There is only one conclusion…..
The shooter/handler knew that there would be no opposition and that they would be allowed to perform the mission without any interference.
Yes, really. Maybe Trump shot them! The Media is just a destructive force now.
My question exactly when I first of it. HOW could this happen? Heads need to roll.
My question exactly when I first of it. HOW could this happen? Heads need to roll.
I agree. I thought the Secret Service was slow on physically covering Trump and appalled that they let him expose his head. I could not believe what I was seeing.
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. It was the one roof in the area and they had no one guarding it.
Yeah, even a posse of uniformed Barney Fifes patrolling around with walkie talkies would have throttled him.
How does a gunman, in plain view of some spectators, manage to open fire on a former president at a campaign rally protected by federal and local law enforcement?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats easy. Crooks had handlers from the Deep State who arranged for a clear shot and gave him onstructions on how to get to the point in the roof.No one like this 20 year old could have accomplished this without intel from the Deep State, just on timing alone.
The PA STte Police had no officers on these roofs outside the perimete, had t9 be a purposeful arrangement. NOT EVEN ONE OFFICER ON THE AG building roof.Had to be arranged.
Where was his cell phone that he had to be carrying?
I suspect it was suicide by cop. If he got President Trump first, the ultimate “success” and, if not, die trying was close enough.
You seem to be unaware of the 1st rule any firearms owner / holder is supposed to be taught (excepting actual wartime situations, directly under fire yourself, or if you are a terrorist, gangster, etc.)
That said, if the vid proves out (probable), that likely explains the security people the witness said were running around the base of the building, but witnesses said the cops couldn't see the shooter from their position(s). That still doesn't help the snipers: Best they can do is aim somewhere along the roofline, scan for someone coming over, identify or receive ID that that particular figure who just appeared over the roofline is a bogey and not a LEO, swing rifle over to get bogey in the scope, aim, and fire. More than enough time for the shooter to get off his 3 shots.
Getting Trump "down"? That will depend on the time stamp. I lean toward "should have happened", but if there is enough incompetency to not at least have a couple reliable Sheriff's Deputies on that roof in the first place, a screw up in communications is relatively much easier to accept. Lacking info., at this point I'd give it a "one in three".
Again, gross incompetency "somewhere" in the security op, by not having security on that roof, is staring you right in the face. The sniper's actions are exactly what should be expected. Once visible TO THEM, the threat was quickly eliminated.
Enhanced interrogations of the FBI, CIA, DOJ should find the planners
Prince Harry!
Knotted Rope - IF he was physically fit to climb such. Or a rope plus rope ladder.
In his younger days, I saw my Dad (Forestry Prof.) use the latter to get up into trees.
Yes, I’ve been wondering that too. Suicide by SS detail is about as “high end blaze of notoriety” as you can get.
That still doesn’t explain no LEO on the roof...
Well, that one SS gal was too short to “cover” Trump unless she climbed up him, anyway! WTH - there are PLENTY of worthy security jobs for female agents under 6’4” (and hefty) on a Presidential detail, but being one of the “bullet interceptors” isn’t one of them. It’s like putting Caitlin Clark in as nose guard for the Indianapolis Colts.
I know nothing about guns but I do know something about COMMON SENSE..you dont leave a building right next to a political rally unattended, you put two people there to make sure no one can climb it..geez any idiot would know that is a perfect spot if you want to shoot people that is where you would do it
Look at it this way, there were cops down below to which the eyewitnesses reported the guy bear crawling on the roof with a rifle.
What exactly were the cops there on the ground, for? To prohibit breech of the perimeter? Event security could have done that.
Everyone knows rooftops are potential sniper spots. Didn’t the police know that? What was the function of the police on the ground? An iconic presence? Just totally useless. No communications with the SS, apparently. The police from the rooftop vantage point, could have prevented breech of the perimeter and backed up event security.
This is so amateurish, it is wanton negligence.
Are we going to get a coherent explanation? I would think there could never be one, the security was sooooo bad, so this will just disappear down the memory hole.
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